HUTCHINS CASE MAY HIGHLIGHT SYSTEM’S FAULTS

Navy can still appeal dismissed conviction of squad’s leader

“I am troubled by the fact that we could keep a member of the military in a trailer for a week without responding to a request for counsel,” Fidell said. The dismissed conviction is also bound to inspire hard feelings in Iraq about the administration of justice under U.S. law, he added.

But possibly the most important aspect of the case, Fidell said, involved statements made by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus during the post-trial clemency period that could have affected ongoing appeals.

Mabus, who declined through a spokeswoman to comment, is one of several senior administration or military officials who have publicly commented on military criminal proceedings in recent years, including the president’s recent statements about discharging military sexual assault suspects and the commandant of the Marine Corps’ tough talk on the same issue, Fidell noted.

Such statements cast doubt on the independence of the military justice system at a time when commanders are arguing to retain the control they have over courts martial.

In this case, Mabus told reporters in 2007 as he was preparing to decide whether to grant Hutchins clemency that the murder was “so completely premeditated, that it was not in the heat of battle, that not only was the action planned but the cover-up was planned, and that they picked somebody at random, just because he happened to be in a house that was convenient.”

His statement was incorrect, since Hutchins had been acquitted of premeditated murder in favor of unpremeditated murder, and the comments could have affected public confidence in the military justice system, one judge wrote in the recent Hutchins’ decision.

“We continue to have the military defending this 18th century system where convening authorities and military leaders exercise extraordinary control over the administration of justice. When you combine that with this sort of free speech by public officials, it has a really corrosive effect on public confidence in the administration of justice,” Fidell said.

If he is released, Hutchins will be reinstated at the rank of sergeant because his conviction and sentence were overturned, his lawyer Maj. Babu Kaza said.